Williams and Stancliff Octagon Houses
About this property
The Joseph Williams Octagon House and the Gilbert Stancliff Octagon House are once-identical historic mid-1850s octagon houses located next to each other at 26 and 28 Marlborough Street in Portland, Connecticut. Constructed of Portland brownstone in the 1850s, they are distinctive as the only known pair of little-altered octagon houses in the state. The pair of houses, also known as the Octagon House Pair, was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976. The two octagon houses are located just outside the town center of Portland, on the north side of Marlborough Street. They are set well back from the street, with a wide grassy expanse in between. Both buildings are two stories in height, with brownstone walls that have been finished in painted stucco. Each has an octagonal cupola at the center of the roof, and a single-story porch on the front facade, sheltering the main entrance. The Stancliff house's porch is a 20th-century replacement. The main roof eave on each house is adorned with carved wooden brackets. When evaluated for National Register listing in the 1970s, the building interiors appeared to be relatively little-altered, despite conversion of one of the buildings to apartments. The two houses were built for Gilbert Stancliff and his brother-in-law, Joseph Williams, and his wife Laura. The stone for their construction came from the local brownstone quarry owned by Stancliff. They may have been built by Stancliff's brother Charles, who was a local builder. National Register of Historic Places listings in Middlesex County, Connecticut
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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).
Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
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Questions about this property
When was Williams and Stancliff Octagon Houses listed on the National Register?
Williams and Stancliff Octagon Houses was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on April 21, 1976.
What type of historic resource is Williams and Stancliff Octagon Houses?
Williams and Stancliff Octagon Houses is classified as a building in the National Register of Historic Places.
What is the period of significance for Williams and Stancliff Octagon Houses?
The period of significance for Williams and Stancliff Octagon Houses is recorded as the industrial era.
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